42 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
Anonads or Sour-sop family ; the large white or 
roseate flowers of the Lecythids or Monkey-cups, 
notable for the stamens being borne on a large 
hooded receptacle in the centre of the flower ; and 
the flowers of the Bombaceae (Eriodendron, Bombax, 
etc.), with strap-shaped sepals and petals in some 
instances little short of a foot in length, beyond 
which hang the still longer bundles of thread-like 
white or rose-coloured stamens. 
Many Myrtles and Melastomes bear a profusion 
of small white flowers, not equal in beauty to those 
of our hawthorn, but producing the same general 
effect. They are remarkable for the suddenness 
and simultaneousness with which the flowers burst 
forth and in like manner fade and fall away. On 
looking over the woods of recent growth in the 
early morning, they may sometimes be seen 
studded with patches of white — the flowery crowns 
of Myrtles and Melastomes — where all was of a 
uniform green the day before ; and a day or two 
later the patches will have assumed the dinginess 
of decay. 
Of all families of plants — excepting perhaps 
Leguminifers — Rubiads seem to occupy the principal 
place in the Amazon valley, from the shores of the 
Atlantic to the crests of the Andes. They are 
always easily recognisable by their opposite entire 
leaves, with interposed stipules ; and by their 
tubular flowers. The latter are often of extra- 
ordinary beauty, and, coupled with the great im- 
portance to man of the products of many Rubiads — - 
for where else do we get stimulants so precious as 
coffee and quinine ? — render these plants surpass- 
ingly interesting to the traveller. . . . We have 
